There is very little research that is empirically-based about atheism in Canada; this thesis seeks to contribute foundational knowledge in this area. It begins with a historical and contemporary overview of atheism in Canada by examining its appearance in government, law, and media. It then addresses the question: “How do atheists construct their identities in the context of a religiously diverse Canada?” through an analysis of data collected from participant-observation with an atheist university club, the Atheist Community of the University of Ottawa (ACUO), followed by an analysis of five significant themes which arose from forty life history interviews (twenty with ACUO members; twenty with Ottawa-area atheists who did not belong to an atheist community that met in person). These themes are: loss of religious identity and/or development of atheist identity; group belonging; perceptions of media and public understanding of atheism; the use of the United States for narrative or comparative purposes; and the frequency of receiving a negative reaction simply for being an atheist. This study found that most interviewees perceived the Canadian public and the media as not understanding atheism because the subject is not commonly reported on or discussed, and many said that (ir)religiosity rarely came up in conversations with strangers, acquaintances, or co-workers. These notions were often seen as resulting from a Canadian social etiquette which dictates that controversial subjects should be avoided in order to minimize the risk of causing offense. Moreover, members of the ACUO often said that they joined an atheist community because they wanted a safe space to meet like-minded people with whom they could freely discuss religion without causing offense to religious others. Unlike in findings from the United States, interviewees did not speak of their atheist identities as being considered ‘un-Canadian’ or as excluding them from their conception(s) of Canadian society. While interviewees often said they were selective with whom they decided to express their atheism, most felt quite positive about living as an atheist in Canada, especially compared to the plight of atheists living in other countries, and atheism came across as being ‘just’ another ‘idea’ in a mosaic of cultural ideas.

In American society, it is assumed that a person who identifies as nonreligious does not participate in activities often associated with religion. In my thesis I will argue that this assumption is false. Over the last 30 years the number of Americans who identify as nonreligious has increased by 200 percent. Yet at the same time, there have appeared numerous new “spiritual technologies” that nonreligious people can participate in, without having to engage in an established religious tradition. The podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text exemplifies this phenomenon by asking, “what if we read the books we love as if they were sacred texts?” I will argue that the podcast treats the Harry Potter series as a sacred text primarily by appropriating religious practices from Christianity and Judaism into “spiritual technologies.” An exploration of American Protestantism’s influence on American culture will situation the podcast within its general cultural context. Using comparative analysis, this thesis will explore how the podcast turns traditional religious practices into nonreligious spiritual technologies.

In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Carter decision that the prohibitions against physician-assisted dying, as outlined in section 241(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada, were unconstitutional as they violated an individual’s s.7 rights as outlined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Though the jurisprudence of this landmark decision and subsequent amendments to Canadian law are interesting in and of themselves, what is particularly interesting about Carter is the framework within which physician-assisted dying is conceptualized. The Court shifts from a religiously informed framework for conceptualizing assisted suicide to a non-religious conceptualization of physician-assisted dying. Given that there remains much to be explored about nonreligion, this thesis asks: how is ‘nonreligion’ constructed by law in relation to physician-assisted dying in Canada? Since the Carter decision is not explicitly about religion or nonreligion the analysis in this thesis maps how the concepts life, death, and morality are reconceptualized. The analysis reveals that nonreligion is a phenomenon that is absent of the transcendent and is instead given positive content through a focus on autonomy. The conceptualization of nonreligion as presented in this thesis contributes to the literature that emphasizes that nonreligion is both positive and meaningful and not simply deficit terminology.

Since the 1960s there has been a rapid increase in the number of individuals throughout much of the Western world who identify as having no religion. This is particularly so in Canada where individuals who identify as having no religion now account for a rather sizeable portion of the total population. Despite the rapid and exponential growth in the number of people who no longer affiliate with religion, however, the sociological study of who the nonreligious are and what a social world not necessarily rooted in religion—what I call nonreligion—might entail have only recently captured the interests of sociologists. As a result, relatively little is known about this growing group of people and nonreligion. One such area that remains significantly understudied is the intersection of nonreligion and law. Canadian law has been called on by the nonreligious to decide upon the constitutionality of various legislation including that which has prohibited access to same-sex marriage, abortion, and physician-assisted dying. The intersection of nonreligion and law thus provides valuable insight into how nonreligious individuals attempt to promote social change in Canadian society. But, the law also acts as a window through which to explore the often-ignored meaningful beliefs, values, and practices of the nonreligious, or the positive content of nonreligion. Much research about nonreligion and the nonreligious has focused on what nonreligion is not and what the nonreligious do not do vis-à-vis religion, very little research engages with the meaningful aspects of nonreligion and nonreligious identities. This thesis seeks to explore the meaningful aspects of nonreligion and contribute original research to this lacking body of scholarship. This thesis asks: How is nonreligion conceptualized in Canadian law and is this framing of nonreligion characterized by more than the simple rejection or negation of religion? In other words, does nonreligion have positive content in the context of law, and if so, what is this positive content? Drawing on the discourse analysis of the Supreme Court of Canada’s Latimer (2001), Bedford (2013), and Trinity Western (2018) cases, I explore the concepts of human rights, morality, and dignity to draw attention to the ways in which nonreligion is socially constructed in law. My analysis shows that nonreligion is conceptualized in legal discourse as encompassing positive content. I argue that social constructions of nonreligion in law are inclusive of meaningful beliefs, values, and practices and that it is no longer sufficient to think of nonreligion and the nonreligious as simply deficit in nature.

Public apprehension about religious diversity has pervaded Canadian headlines at an increasing pace, particularly during the past fifteen years. Urban centres and suburban and rural communities alike have seen clashes over the manifestation of diverse belief systems in daily life. From immigrant ‘codes of conduct,’ a ‘charter of values,’ controversy over the wearing of the Sikh kirpan in school, to bans on religious vestments and symbols worn by public servants including teachers, conflict and socially divisive misunderstandings are often the unfortunate fruits of ignorance about the ‘other.’ Many religious actors at the center of these stories have seen their cases ultimately adjudicated in Canada’s highest court, reinforcing the perception that religious difference is a source of conflict and division in Canadian society. In this era of global conversations about how liberal democracies approach diversity, this dissertation expands the conversation on education about religion, beliefs and worldviews in Canadian classrooms. With public education situated as a primary site for constructing democratic citizenship, the question of how this evolving dynamic of diversity is taught in schools is symbolically and practically linked to broader debates about government and societal responses to pluralism. This thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge by interweaving thinking from the literature on pluralism, xenosophia and deep equality as a conceptual framework, with empirical work investigating what parents and educators thought Canadian public-school (primary and secondary) students should learn in order to best prepare them for living and thriving in a diverse society. Triangulated data gathered from semi-structured interviews with parents and educators (n=22), responses from a national online survey (n=190), and a textual analysis of secondary student manuals from Quebec’s Ethics and Religious Culture Program (n=5), provided a holistic vantage point from which to consider the central research questions. Analysis and interpretation of findings revealed that learning about diversity and difference were of central importance, however, there were fundamental concerns regarding indoctrination, rejection of majority religious privilege and even-handedness in the presentation of religious and nonreligious belief systems. Existing discourse on religious and worldview literacy education in Canada tends to focus on teaching and learning in the context of a discrete curriculum such as the Ethics and Religious Culture program. However, findings from this research suggest that increased public awareness about the religious entanglements of colonization, combined with the significant rise in the number of Canadians who hold non-religious worldviews, contribute to a rethinking of how such literacy endeavours may be better integrated into other subject areas such as civics, citizenship, history or social studies.